On 23rd birthday, parents vow never to give up
SYRACUSE -- Larry Stackhouse Junior has been missing for three and a half years. On what would have been his 23rd birthday, his parents vow to never give up the search. "We will never let this become a cold case", Larry Stackhouse Senior told Action News Wednesday.
Stackhouse disappeared on December 2nd, 2005. His father now believes that Stackhouse was kidnapped off the streets of Syracuse, murdered and his body concealed somewhere on the Onondaga Nation Territory. Since the disappearance, Stackhouse Senior says he has received calls, letters and other information that points to certain individuals who either killed his son or know who did. While he says the clues point to the Onondaga Nation as the place where the body may be found, the frustrated father feels investigators are hampered by procedures dealing with a sovereign nation. "It takes time to get down there to search an area or speak to certain individuals."
Chief Deputy District Attorney Rick Trunfio says the nation has cooperated with the investigation. He says police conducted a search with cadaver dogs but found nothing. Trunfio says an assistant prosecutor and an investigator who is a Native American are constantly working the case. He tells Action News there was "activity", which he would not spell out, as recently as yesterday. "A cold case is difficult to work" he explains, "you have limited leads, limited information coming in, but we're tracking all the information that comes in."
Attorney Joe Heath says the Onondaga Nation chiefs have cooperated with the Stackhouse investigation. "We all share the same goals, which is safety for all the citizens of Central New York."
